April 2011
Nickel is not featured too often in Modern Mining - a reflection of the fact that there are only a handful of nickel mines in Africa - but it takes pride of place in this issue as our lead story is on African Eagle's Dutwa project in northern Tanzania.
Lying just to the west of the Serengeti National Park, Dutwa is a remarkable find - technically a laterite but in practice more like an oxide nickel deposit. African Eagle has moved forward vigorously with Dutwa since discovering it in mid-2008 and has now defined a resource of nearly one million tonnes of the metal - all of it extractable using simple open-pit mining. A further plus is the ore is amenable to straightforward atmospheric leaching.
Moving far to the south and west from Tanzania, we cover the Otjikoto gold project in Namibia, originally discovered by AVMIN in the late 90s but now being developed by Canadian junior Auryx Gold. Currently, Namibia has only one gold mine - AngloGold Ashanti's Navachab, which produced 86 000 ounces in 2010. Auryx believes that Otjikoto could become a second Navachab. Geologically it is similar and the resource - at this point 1,5 Moz at 1,94g/t - is sufficient to support a similar or even higher level of production.
Staying in Namibia, Australian company Extract Resources has recently released the results of the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) on its exciting Husab uranium project.
Husab is regarded as one of the premier uranium deposits in Nambia - and, for that matter, the world - and the DFS has demonstrated the viability of an open-pit operation producing approximately 6 800 t/a of U3O8 over a life of 16 years.
If it goes into production, Husab - with a price tag in the region of US$1,5 billion - will rank as one of the biggest mining developments in Namibia's history.
Hydropower technology for the mines is featured in a profile we have on Novatek, a Johannesburg-based company which claims to be one of the pioneers in using high-pressure water to drive rock drills and other mining machinery. According to Novatek, hydropower can cut the electricity consumption of South African underground mines very significantly - a major benefit given the fact that the era of cheap electricity is now well and truly behind South Africa.
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Turning night into day
As our cover story explains, Barloworld Power has expanded its turnkey offering with the roll-out of a series of mobile lighting tower solutions - from Australian manufacturer AllightSykes - for mines and general industry.
Shaft Sinkers plans for a global future
Now listed in London, Shaft Sinkers - an icon of the South African mining industry - has diversified into overseas markets such as Russia and India, which it considers to have high potential for growth. South Africa, however, still accounts for about 75 % of the group's business and its flagship contract is Impala's No 17 Shaft near Rustenburg, reputedly the single biggest shaft-sinking contract underway anywhere in the world.
Kumba opens sampling plant in Saldanha
Kumba Iron Ore has invested just over R100 million in a new fully automated sampling plant at the Saldanha iron ore terminal. The new facility - which represents a collaboration between Kumba and Transnet - will allow the physical and chemical qualities of iron ore products to be certified independently before they are loaded for export.
Still plenty of scope for mines to save on energy
Long established mine ventilation and refrigeration specialist, BBE, has created a new company, BBEnergy, focused on energy-saving initiatives in the mining and industrial markets. While most mining groups have made concerted efforts to cut their energy consumption in the wake of the Eskom power outages of two years ago, BBEnergy believes that almost all mines can still make significant savings.
